Barrier guided growth of microstructured and nanostructured graphene and graphite

Abstract

Methods for growing microstructured and nanostructured graphene by growing the microstructured and nanostructured graphene from the bottom-up directly in the desired pattern are provided. The graphene structures can be grown via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on substrates that are partially covered by a patterned graphene growth barrier which guides the growth of the graphene.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for growing multilayered patterned, single-crystalline graphene comprising: depositing a graphene growth barrier that defines a pattern directly on a graphene growth catalyst surface; and growing multiple sheets of graphene in a vertical stack directly on the graphene growth catalyst surface, wherein the graphene sheets are grown directly, laterally next to and around the graphene growth barrier and the vertical stack of graphene is grown to a height that exceeds a height of the graphene growth barrier;
 and further wherein each new sheet of graphene in the vertical stack forms at the bottom of the vertical stack and the sheets of graphene that are at a height that exceeds the height of the graphene growth barrier do not grow laterally, whereby a same pattern that is defined by the graphene growth barrier is also defined in all of the sheets of graphene in the stack. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the growth barrier comprises aluminum oxide. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein depositing a graphene growth barrier comprises transferring a pre-patterned graphene growth barrier template onto the graphene growth catalyst surface, depositing the graphene growth barrier onto the graphene growth catalyst surface around the pre-patterned graphene growth barrier template, and removing the pre-patterned graphene growth barrier template. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 3 , wherein the pre-patterned graphene growth barrier template comprises a self-assembled block copolymer film that defines a pattern, and further wherein the step of depositing the graphene growth barrier onto the graphene growth catalyst surface comprises etching the pattern into the self-assembled block copolymer film by selectively removing portions of the self-assembled block copolymer film and depositing the graphene growth barrier onto the graphene growth catalyst surface around the remaining portions of the self-assembled block copolymer film. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the graphene grown on the graphene growth catalyst surface comprises one or more single-crystalline domains having an area of at least 10 μm 2 . 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the pattern in the graphene grown on the graphene growth catalyst surface has a feature with at least one lateral dimension of 5 nm or smaller. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the pattern defined by the graphene growth barrier is an array of holes. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the single-crystalline graphene comprises at least 10 sheets of graphene. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the single-crystalline graphene comprises at least 1000 sheet of graphene. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the graphene growth catalyst comprises a transition metal.